HOW TO DYE YOUR PAPERS AT HOME

Hi everyone!

Today I want to share with you how i dye my papers for making my journals. Here is the list of materials needed-

1. copy paper/ ledger/music sheets/ graph papers/ lined papers/ doilies
2. tea/ coffee
3. water
4. baking dish/tray
5. oven

First of all select your papers to be dyed either in tea or coffee. Then put your oven to preheat at 180 degree celcius for ten minutes. Then bring some water {enough to sink your papers in the dish} to boil and add 4 tsp of tea/coffee to it. Depending upon how dark you want your papers, let the simmer a bit. after that strain your tea and pour your water in the dish. Wait for it to be lukewarm or you can add a little boiling water and then add a little cold water(if you are in a hurry).

Soak your paper in the lukewarm tea water in the dish. Take it out in 15-25 seconds. Lay it out on the baking tray making sure that the paper doesn’t tear. Put it straight in the oven for a minute or so. Keep checking to see the paper drying out and the intensity of the color you want. When you are satisfied take it out and repeat the procedure with all your papers.

This is me like a trial and error because it totally depends on the quality of the paper, the time you are soaking your paper and the temperature of your oven. when you do 2-3 papers you will come to know exactly what needs to be changed to get the exact kind of result.

If you ask me there is no right and wrong with this technique since these are handmade and the more the variations the more it looks beautiful in the journals. Above are the pictures  of my dyed papers and doilies.

To give it a more defined look, you can ink the edges of the papers with a brown ink and also flatten the papers a bit with an ironing machine. This will settle the papers uniformly but i like my papers a bit ruffled and raw.

Above are the two pictures of how I used these papers in one of my journals. That’s it from my side, I hope you like this technique and you will give it a try.

Cheers

 Priyanka